STATE OF THE STATE: BROKEN BOW
Jon Loba’s house has latterly seen enormous breakthroughs by Broken Bow’s Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll, whose big streams, sales, spins, awards and more have evidenced not merely success but real cultural impact.
Add big hits by BBR’s Jason Aldean, Dustin Lynch and Parmalee, as well as big progress by newcomers Drake Milligan and Dylan Schneider, and you’ve got a company that’s firing on all cylinders, with one of the most diverse rosters in the biz.
Wilson, the ACM and CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, CMA New Artist and ACM Album winner, whose “Heart Like a Truck” (from her acclaimed set Bell Bottom Country) floored it to #1 (it also became the theme to a giant Ford Ram campaign). Just three weeks later, she made history by hitting #1 again, this time with her “wait in the truck” collab with HARDY, which also earned a ton of hardware. A CMAs co-host, she delivered big, diverse performances on multiple awards-show broadcasts. Wilson was the first female country artist to get an Enhanced Album with Spotify and the first artist to get an entire 90-minute installment of Amazon Music’s Breakthrough Live. Big syncs have included Yellowstone, Fire Country and Tulsa King.
And then there’s Jelly Roll, a bona fide phenom who recently scored a Top 3 chart bow with acclaimed set Whitsitt Chapel and has demonstrated his reach by scoring #1 hits at both Country (“Son of a Sinner,” which snagged three CMT awards) and Active Rock radio (“Dead Man Walking”). He has earned multiple huge looks, not least the powerhouse Hulu documentary Jelly Roll: Save Me; an Amazon Music Live City Sessions (he was the first country artist to do so); a stunning ACMs performance with Wilson of their collab, “Save Me”; big TV looks including GMA, GMA3 and Nightline; and sellout shows at the Ryman and Bridgestone Arena.
Aldean hit #1 with “Trouble With a Heartbreak.” Parmalee notched back-to-back #1 hits with “Just the Way and Take My Name.” Newcomers Milligan and Schneider were dubbed 2023 country artists to watch by Pandora and Amazon Music, respectively.
Broken Bow, meanwhile, was dubbed Mediabase’s #1 Country Airplay Label of the Year.
This eventful year has also seen Loba fine-tuning his team by elevating JoJamie Hahr to EVP, tapping Peter Strickland as GM and upping Shelley Hargis to VP of radio syndication & group strategy.
